Writing Hybrid Memoir

Mondays: June 8 - 29
7 - 9:30 p.m. EST

Led by CARVELL WALLACE
with guest authors Alexander Chee, Nina Renata Aron, Megan Stielstra, & Melissa Febos

$420 ($370 until March 19)

Many of the most powerful memoirs go beyond the author’s own experience, bringing the reader a deeper, more multi-faceted story. Why shouldn’t memoir encompass more than the personal? After all, we’re defined not just by what happened to us, but also what we read, what we obsess over, what we love. Hybrid memoir, or “memoir-plus,” elegantly reflects that multiplicity within the self, while also lending readers the chance to transcend the particulars of one person’s life. 

This four-week course, taught by New York Times bestselling writer Carvell Wallace, explores the craft and possibilities of hybrid memoir, a sub-genre that encompasses bestsellers like Tara Westover’s Educated, Pulitzer Prize winners like Hua Hsu’s Stay True, and reader favorites like Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass. We’ll examine how hybrid memoirists draw power from their willingness to go beyond personal narrative into broader subjects like class, education policy, mental health, botany, ecology, and even the craft of writing itself. 

We’ll be joined by a range of hybrid memoir authors—Alexander Chee, Nina Renata Aron, Megan Stielstra and Melissa Febos—whose books showcase the range, vitality, and wild possibility of this genre. Students will have the chance to pose questions directly to guest authors and learn more about how they conceived of, executed, and published their books. Through in-class prompts, discussion and guided analysis, we’ll explore both the complications and exaltations of weaving multiple threads into one coherent piece of writing. 

This is a discussion-based course, not a workshop. While there’s no individualized feedback, you’ll generate a wealth of new material through tailored prompts and weekly assignments.

In this course, students can expect to:

• Learn how to use their own story to illuminate a story in the world, and how to use a story in the world to illuminate their own

• Expand their toolkit of approaches as narrative nonfiction writers

• Identify and navigate the common pitfalls of a fragmentary or kaleidoscopic structures

• Improve their technical problem-solving skills when crafting hybrid narratives

• Encounter a thrilling range of hybrid texts and approaches

• Connect with fellow nonfiction writers keen on experimenting with the hybrid form and pushing the limits of the genre

About the Instructors

Details

This course will take place on Zoom. Participants will receive a Zoom link prior to the course as well as a recording of the course afterward.

After you take a course with Off Assignment, you’ll be invited into our private writing community for alumni on Slack. It includes channels for publication opportunities, reading recommendations, meet-ups, and more—not to mention literary companionship that outlasts the course itself.

There is a 10% cancellation fee if you cancel your enrollment more than 1 week before the start of the course. No refund will be given if cancelling within less than a week of the course start date (or after the course has begun).

Please email courses@offassignment.com with any questions.

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Financial Aid

The full price for this course is $420, with early bird pricing at $370 available until March 19. Payment plans are available at checkout via ShopPay.

A limited number of scholarships for this course are available. Please fill out this form by March 26, and we’ll get back to you within a week after the deadline. (Please hold off on registering until you have received a scholarship decision.)

Off Assignment’s Masters’ Series courses are unique four-session courses that delve deep into a specific writing topic by harnessing the expertise and craft tactics of a renowned writer in a particular niche, plus four celebrated authors. Participating writers gain a wealth of advanced techniques while benefiting from a cohesive community of disciplined writers.